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Lists
A List is a written or printed record of a series of names or items that share a common theme.http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/list?s=t Origin According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, the word may have originated in more than one place: "French liste, from Italian lista, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German līsta edge First Known Use: 1602"http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/list Purpose of lists The creation of lists serves two main purposes: Organization and Time management. A list can be used to organize thoughts, goals, ideas, information, etc. Lists may be used to record valuable information or they may be used as a navigational tool that leads to other information (i.e. a glossary or index). Once information is place into lists, it becomes more convienent for its users to access, thus enabling the information to be processed more quickly. Types of Lists A list can fit into one or more catagories of Types of Lists. Chronological Lists - 'Lists of happenings/occurances arranged in sequence of time from earliest to most recent or vice versa. Examples of such lists would be timelines, class schedules, etc. '''Decriptive/Definition Lists- '''This is described lists that "contain groups of 'terms and definitions metadata topics and values, questions and answers or any other groups of name-data value'". Glossaries and catalogs are exmaples of descriptive/definition lists. '''Stand-alone Lists-' These are the most commonly thought of type of lists. Their contents typically consist of a title, which summarizes their common theme, and the list items themselves, and have no tie to any other article. Generally there is little to no prose within the list, other than the title. As the title is a descriptor of the list, it will usually start with "List of..." followed by the theme (i.e List of American made cars). Stand alone lists usually have line breaks after each item. Each item can be numbered, bulleted, or left unbulleted. Though less common, stand-lone lists might also be written horizontally or in a table. Examples of stand-alone lists would include, To-Do Lists, Grocery Lists, a list of dog breeds, a list of spanish speaking countries, etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Stand-alone_lists 'Embedded Lists-' Embedded lists have some sort of relation to prose text within an article, such as an essay, scientific or acedemic journal, a magazine, book, or other publication. Indentations within an article, such as that shown below, on the right, in comparision to the imformation written in prose, are considered a form of embedded lists. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Embedded_lists In addition, lists in a line break format, much line that of a stand-alone list may be placed within an article. A works cited page or a reference page, much like the one at the bottom on this page, are also examples of an embedded list.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Embedded_lists List Layouts A list can be written and formatted in various ways. The most common layouts include: 'Line Breaks-' most list are written with line breaks between each item listed. After an item is listed, the following item with be placed on the line below it to emphasize its seperation from the item before and after it. 'Bulleted Lists-' List items follow a bullet point, which may be any symbol that indicates a new item in a list. A dot, square, diamond, hyphen, arrow, or an asterisk may be used as a bullet point. A bullet point's specific purpose is to demonstrate a new item to a list. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullet_(typography) 'Numbered Lists-' Numbering each item in a list essantially plays the same role as bulleting. The difference is that a list should be numbered, instead of bulleted, if the order of the items is consequental or if the item will be referenced later on and needs to be identified by the number (i.e. chapter's in a book). Typically, both bulleted lists and numbered lists are found in a line-break format.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Stand-alone_lists#Bulleted_and_numbered_lists '''Tables- Tables are often used when comparing data. Horizontal Lists- Items in a horizontal list are seperated by commas and are most often found within prose. An example would be, "My favorite fruits are apples, bananas, oranges, and nectarines". 'Timelines-' Timelines are lists written in a linear fashion, with with dates marked along it, listing the occurance of events. A timeline goes from left to right starting from the earliest occurance and ending with the latest occurrence. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Stand-alone_lists#Chronological_ordering References